Folks may wonder why I'm spending time defending Clark when it's an insignificant comment ripped out of context that will be forgotten in a day or two. Basically, the answer is because the furor over his comments has been nuts, and it's almost entirely cynical. It's the McCain campaign ginning up a helpful controversy, the Right jumping on-board because it's better to talk about McCain's service to this country rather than his unpopular and generally bad ideas for how to run it, and the media loving a good fight and having lots of time to fill up:
Clark isn't the world's best politician, but it was Schieffer who brought up McCain's plane crash in reply to Clark's comments on executive experience. It wasn't Clark who went their on his own. He's being unfairly pilloried for an entirely fair remark.